In light of the feminist uprising that is giving women a resurgence in power and voice, we are still having to hold our ground against dismissal and outright hostility. We still have unanswered questions that history has for too long ignored. Why do we feel disconnected from our bodies and ashamed to seek pleasure? Why do we feel such a deep loss of empowerment over our own bodies as they become more commercialized by mainstream media? Why do we know so little about our own sexual anatomy? Why have women been marginalized in the nursing field for lower pay and criminalized for any attempt to practice medicinal healing outside of the mainstream medical and pharmaceutical industries? The answers to these questions emerge from Anne Llewellyn Barstow’s book, "Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts." In this episode, Amaya and Leigh dive deep into the historical trauma of the execution of a hundred thousand plus women over a two-hundred year span in European and American history. This was a widespread and targeted attack on women’s bodies and agency that does not get enough serious study--“It’s a significant moment in [European] history that people don’t talk enough about…there are no monuments really for this persecution” (Leigh).

Amaya and Leigh discuss the long history of women’s sexuality being vilified and used against them by the church and then the state to keep women’s sources of power in check. We also discuss women’s reliance on their sexuality for resourcing due to men’s control of resources, and how this still plays out today. Reading through these stories of women being accused, tortured, maimed, and killed is gruesome, but also necessary for women to recognize and heal these old wounds and bring feminine energy and power back into balance.